Dark Shadows has arrived!

Willie Oleson

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I think I'll remember it as that moment when Dark Shadows finally "clicked" with me
The last episodes I've watched (80 to 90) really feels like a "season 2" to me. A lot of the wooden narrative has been dropped and it's almost as if the actors have come to understand and feel their respective characters. Or maybe I simply have grown closer to the characters with each subsequent episode, or maybe it's a combination of both.
Either way, it's resulted in something more organically soapy i.e. scenes about the characters rather than the latest repetitive "update".
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For once, they're not talking about Bill Malloy - but they end up singing about Bill Malloy!
I don't know if it will ever be as nuanced as Peyton Place, but when it's good it's great. Sometimes I even forget I'm watching a daytime soap.
Another byproduct is that it looks more entertainingly vintage.

An important ingredient of soap opera is the booze.
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Not necessarily an alcohol addiction, just something that allows the characters to interpret a situation in a different way. Not to mention the fact that it helps people to behave a little dirtier.
After Carolyn has left, Burke does a funny villainous soliloquy.
Oh, and the reason she ended up in his room is because Joe Haskell has come to his senses and realizes that his relationship with Carolyn isn't going anywhere.
He's having dinner with Maggie Evans who appears to be just a little too eager to please him.
When she says she knows a lot about boats it actually means that she knows everything about boats, almost has if she's done her homework to impress him.
(*cough*homewrecking whore*cough*)
There's something eerily disproportionate about this image the way she towers over Joe like an evil Sea Goddess looking at her prey.
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Furthermore, now the case of Bill Malloy's death has been officially closed, the idea of a possible murderer becomes far more intriguing because several characters are moving on but it could still come back to bite them in the ass.
What if Maggie has read Sam's telltale letter, and understood what Bill Malloy was going to do. She'd be a fabulous surprise culprit, Julia Cumson style.

Thanks to psycho David, Miss Winters is trapped in the inside inside the Collinwood Manor, and they've done a good job capturing the urgency of the situation.
There's an impressive thunderstorm going on, the ghost of Bill Malloy appears but it's mostly about the idea of being buried alive.
I loved the appropriately frustrating sequence with the key that she almost managed to get by means of a resourceful action.
It's Roger Collins who discovers Vicky's mysterious whereabouts and for a moment I thought he wasn't going to free her, but then something far more unexpectedly happens.
In order to upset her even more, he starts to make noises like dropping an object and rattling the door with a poker of sorts. I found it all shockingly sadistic but a moment later I found myself howling with laughter as Roger starts to impersonate a ghost-with-a-message.
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Victoria Winters...leave Collinwood...you are in danger....goooo hooome

The news that Vicky has encounted a ghost makes David change his tune regarding his much-hated tutor.
Vicky quotes his previous comments: I hate you / If you die I won't come to your funeral / I hope you stay in that locked room for the rest of your life.
Did I say that ? I didn't mean it, not all of it.
:lol:

If you die, I would come to your funeral (.......) because I LIKE funerals!
It's a tiny little twist but controversial enough to be noticeable.

If DYNASTY is the staircase soap than DARK SHADOWS is the doors soap, and Joan Bennett is the queen of opening and closing doors in a graceful but also plot-heavy manner.
Burke's vengeful business plot becomes an on-screen reality with soapy threats to and fro, and I'm loving all of it.
 
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tommie

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Those marks... vampire!!!!

Is it just me, or two episodes in 1897. people already seem smarter there?
 

darkshadows38

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David becomes a pretty good kid at some point i don't remember when it starts but it was after the show had turned to color i believe. what's pretty damn coo is Harvey Keitel did a couple of episodes as an extra no dialog. so did Susan Sullivan as well she also did the show i believe, anyways, yeah they mentioned Bill Malloy quite a lot but hearing about that damn pen really does get annoying at some point
 

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I am starting to doodle Mr & Mr Selby in notebooks. I think it sounds very good, doesn't it?
 

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Yesterday I was making ISO copies of Knots (not to be confused with IMOS) and I noticed that the picture quality of season 7 was kinda crappy except for the last 5 episodes.

Why would that seventh go (1985-86) not look all that great?
 

tommie

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Wait, not only is Angelique back but so is Eve/crazy Danielle (in the form of Jenny Collins, unknown if we're supposed to recognize her or not)?! Uh-oh... this is getting messy.
 

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I luvz me some Crazy Jenny! The un-combed hair, the wacky dialogue....so much more entertaining than her stint as Eve.

As much as I disliked Roger Davis and all his various characters, I thought the introduction of the character of Sabrina Stuart would have been an ideal chance to bring Alexandra Moltke back to the mix.
 

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I am back in 1897 watching the Phoenix/Werewolf storyline. I watched the episode with the pentagrams: one drawn on the floor to protect Beth and Magda’s necklace that the lawyer tried to buy. The next day I walked in my neighborhood and found a pentagram necklace lying on a path. I was scared to touch it - weird coincidence!
 

tommie

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As much as I disliked Roger Davis and all his various characters, I thought the introduction of the character of Sabrina Stuart would have been an ideal chance to bring Alexandra Moltke back to the mix.
By all accounts I doubt she'd come back and allow Roger "The Creep" Davis treat her as a human ragdoll - I don't think I've ever been as uncomfortable with how Ned is throwing around his catatonic sister and being all over her. I do think they should've at least had Dr Stokes mention that Ned must be the body that Peter/Jeff inhabited when he time-travelled.
 

Willie Oleson

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I had promised myself not to throw in the towel before episode 100 and thankfully I have no desire to stop at this point. The story progresses surprisingly fast, there are some new faces and overall it feels very vibrant.
The last 5 episodes I've watched are all about Miss Winters, her investigation in Bangor, the shocking twists with the fountain pen and Carolyn's bipolar and hypocritical attitude.
Sam Evans gives her the portrait of Betty Hanscom (Hanscombe? Handscom? Hankscom?) and I thought it was a very nice thing to do.
Matthew is a pathetic, pervy pig and I'm sure he's nicked some of "Misshesh Shtoddard'sh" underwear.
Is it just me or do they always play the same song in the Blue Whale?
 

tommie

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I had promised myself not to throw in the towel before episode 100 and thankfully I have no desire to stop at this point. The story progresses surprisingly fast, there are some new faces and overall it feels very vibrant.
The last 5 episodes I've watched are all about Miss Winters, her investigation in Bangor, the shocking twists with the fountain pen and Carolyn's bipolar and hypocritical attitude.
Sam Evans gives her the portrait of Betty Hanscom (Hanscombe? Handscom? Hankscom?) and I thought it was a very nice thing to do.
Matthew is a pathetic, pervy pig and I'm sure he's nicked some of "Misshesh Shtoddard'sh" underwear.
Is it just me or do they always play the same song in the Blue Whale?
Gosh, I do enjoy these early soap opera type episodes. Get ready for insanity as you enter 1967.
 

Willie Oleson

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Episodes 109 and 110 don't exist!

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I think they want us to know that this is Bill Malloy's Autopsy Report.

The sheriff is very smart and he's still investigating the case.
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But the identity of the killer has already been revealed.

When this window is closed it has to be opened, when it's open it has to be closed.
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So typical.
 

tommie

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They're really packing the show full of villains and vixens now with both Trask and Laura back (though that creates an issue with the fact that Roger married his own grandmother, plus the whole thing about Phoenixes rising every 100 years? But maybe going down in fire means they get new DNA every time they are reborn?).
 

Willie Oleson

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Are my eyes deceiving me ?!?

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I had never expected a kiss to be one of the biggest soap shockers ever.
Did anyone here ever sense that kind of chemistry between Burke and Vicky? I know he likes her very much but to me it always seemed like a protective big brother kind of love.
But this...omg, this changes the whole outlook of DARK SHADOWS. I hope Carolyn finds out because she's treated Vicky very badly and she deserves to suffer.
 

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I had never expected a kiss to be one of the biggest soap shockers ever.
I think one of the beauties of Dark Shadows is that nothing really happens for months on end so that then when something actually does happen, it's so shocking you think you're going to have a heart attack.
 

Willie Oleson

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But everything in between has to be entertaining too. Roger Collins is the king of bitchy sarcasm but it's the sophisticated script that makes it more fun than "just bitchy".
Carolyn is always in a state of soap alert and she doesn't realize that she's creating the drama all by herself.
They have just done a typical storyline with all enemies working together (Elizabeth, Burke and Joe Haskell) in order to find Vicky who's taken hostage by Matthew again.
Ms. Johnson is becoming more and more opinionated (so much for "not sticking my nose into other people's personal affairs") while she's covering David in a mist of cigarette smoke.

Elizabeth has set up a mini-study in the drawing room, I guess it's going to be serious business talk from now on especially since Burke keeps barging in to the mansion.
Burke also entertains Carolyn in his hotel room and it all looks very ooh la la.
The situation reminds of Nick Toscanni and Fallon and Krystle.
 

Willie Oleson

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The funniest things can happen with the announcement board.
Episode 124 starts with David discovering Miss Winters in the secret room of the old house, and Alexandra Moltke repeatedly hits the announcement board with her knee.
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The camera crew is very laid-back, sometimes I see them in the background as they set up the camera for the next angle and sometimes I can hear them cough or laugh or move things....and since they're not supposed to be in it it's almost as if they are the supernatural entities.

But wait! A mystery woman has arrived in town. She's kinda glamorous, like Adrienne van der Leyden (Peyton Place).
Dark Shadows hunk Joe Haskell tells Maggie that he and Carolyn are finished for good, but big statements like that usually mean nothing in the world of soap opera.
Maggie (jokingly): your social climbing days are over, eh?
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I really like Maggie when she puts her foot in it.
 
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